


Family, Or Something Like It

by WhoGeek



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek is an insecure whiner, Dysfunctional Family, M/M, Stiles is more mature than the whole pack, Stiles is the brains, The Author Regrets Nothing, The author is insane, Which is kinda worrisome, but also not surprising, family causes so many issues, including Derek, which is also not surprising
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-24
Updated: 2012-11-28
Packaged: 2017-11-19 09:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoGeek/pseuds/WhoGeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Hale Fire, Kate gets an unwanted surprise. She gives up Derek’s child and takes the secret to her grave. Years later, the little girl finds her way to Beacon Hills. Derek can’t look at his daughter without seeing Kate. But with the help of Stiles, Derek learns how to be a father and together they rebuild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shanachie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanachie/gifts), [emocezi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emocezi/gifts).



> Based on a [prompt](http://krakenface.tumblr.com/post/35790938953/fleetofblimps-teen-wolf-au-after-the-hale-fire) I literally stumbled over when I was bouncing through Tumblr. Somehow, it latched onto my brain and just refused to budge until I started writing it. Also, this is my first Teen Wolf fic, because this fandom has eaten my brain and I hadn't written much beyond snippets until this latched onto me.
> 
> And thanks to Shanachie for being awesome and beta-ing. And to Shanachie and Emocezi for letting me flail at them about this for the last couple of weeks.

Stiles is lounging on Derek’s porch with Allison and Lydia, watching the wolves run through their paces when Derek suddenly stops and turns to stare towards the driveway. The rest of the pack stops and turns as well, shifting into ready stances behind him. Allison has an arrow notched on her bow and is on her feet within moments while Stiles scrambles to his feet, Lydia following much more gracefully.

It seems to take ages, the entire pack still and waiting, before two people appear through the trees.

“You’re trespassing on Hale pack territory.” Derek’s voice is a low snarl; warning and threat all rolled into one.

“I’m not here to challenge you. I’m only here to see that she arrived safely.” The man stopped just behind the last car on the driveway, one hand dropping to the shoulder of the young girl in front of him.

“Why?”

“Because she’s the child of a hunter and a werewolf and she belongs with her family, with her father.”

Allison sucks in a breath, going suddenly stiff and rigid beside Stiles. Her bow drops and she stares at the little girl. “Kate had a daughter?”

The strange werewolf looks up at Allison and snarls, shifting and pulling the girl behind himself. “You have a hunter in your midst? I’d think you would know best that no good can come of that.”

Derek roars and the other werewolf flinches backwards. “She’s pack.”

Allison breaks the building tension by speaking first. “And if I’ve got this right; she’s my cousin.” That statement brings everything to a halt and everyone turns to stare at Allison as she hops off the porch and heads for where the other wolf is still in a defensive crouch. Stiles hops down and follows, taking the bow when Allison passes it back to him. “I’m assuming that Kate is the hunter. And if you’re here with her, the only one who could be her father is Derek.”

With that everyone’s attention turns to Derek. Stiles doesn’t think he’s ever seen so much emotion on Derek’s face before, fear and worry and outright shock.

“You have a kid?” Derek turns to glower at Stiles and he can’t help but start to babble. “I mean, not that I think you couldn’t have a kid, but you’re all glower and stare and not really the most cuddly or father-type figure. And you have a _kid_ and how did you not even know? Because obviously you didn’t even know but now she’s _here_ and I’m gonna shut up now. Right.”

“She’s the one who tracked your scent.” The strange wolf steps aside, pulling the little girl forward a little as he speaks.

Without another word Derek turns and stalks off into the treeline. No one moves for a long moment before Stiles curses and shoves Allison’s bow back into her hands, scrambling after the quickly retreating figure. “Derek. Derek!” Stiles moves as quickly as he dares through the forest, just keeping track of Derek’s back ahead of him. “Come on, don’t be like this. Derek, wait.”

“Go back, Stiles.”

“No. She tracked you. Derek, she followed your scent to Beacon Hills. You have to help her.”

Derek finally stops and turns to face Stiles, looking close to desperate and terrified. “I can’t. Stiles...I-I can’t.” Derek’s jaw visibly clenches and he swallows hard. “I just...I can’t.” He turns and takes off into the woods and there’s no way Stiles will be able to keep up this time, so he turns and heads back towards the house.

The rest of the pack are almost exactly where they were when Stiles took off after Derek when he gets back, the two strangers still by the cars. “You are all a bunch of heathens. Manners, geez. Is it really that hard when Derek isn’t here to make decisions?” Stiles strides over to the little girl and the man with her, jumping when several growls come from behind him. “Stop that. Seriously. You all got bit and lost any sense of what’s reasonable behavior.”

“Stiles,” Scott groans as Stiles continues to the two newcomers.

“Hi. I’m Stiles. This bunch of uncultured heathens are the pack. Scott and Allison, Isaac, Erica, Boyd, Jackson, and Lydia is up on the porch.” Stiles gestures at each of them in turn, getting a wave out of Scott, Allison and Isaac, and barely a nod from Lydia.

The stranger glanced around, taking in the pack. “And why does a human speak for the Hale pack?”

Stiles has to fight the urge to turn around when several growls come from behind him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Well, every group has to have someone who’s the brains. That just so happens to be me. That and I don’t really expect them to be totally up on common human courtesy anymore, though I did expect better from Allison and Lydia.”

The stranger doesn’t look happy about that but he does relax. “I’m James, with the Canton pack, and this is Darcie.” Darcie waves and Stiles feels his heart melting for her.

“Okay. You, uh, you want to come inside?” A chorus of unhappy growls makes Stiles whirl around. “Jeez. All right. You bunch of _animals_. Not inside. The porch then. We can sit on the porch. If that’s all right with you lot?” He turns back without waiting for an answer. “Right. Come sit on the porch and we’ll, I dunno, talk.”

James and Darcie follow Stiles up to the porch. Stiles hoists himself up to sit on the edge, James hoists Darcie up and then himself, leaving Darcie between them. Darcie sniffs at the air before turning and crawling into Stiles’ lap, wrapping her arms around him and obviously getting comfortable.

Stiles flails for a moment, careful not to dislodge her. “Um, hi? What...Why...I don’t...”

Darcie looks up at him, green eyes serious. “You smell like Daddy.”

Stiles swallows hard, one hand coming down to Darcie’s back. “Thank you?” The rest of the pack has started moving closer, clearly intrigued. Darcie suddenly notices and growls. Stiles jostles her to pull her attention back to himself. “Hey, stop that. That’s my pack. Your daddy’s pack.”

Darcie stops and turns, mashing her face into the curve of Stiles’ neck.

James speaks up. “She’s probably a little unsettled. Her father, who she tracked here, just left her with a bunch of strangers.”

“Well, why now? And how did you end up with her?”

“We heard that the Hale pack had started rebuilding and was stable. Darcie’s been wanting to come since she realized she could smell Derek. Never much, or for very long, but she could smell him enough to get a general direction. Once we knew that there was a stable pack again, we figured it was time to let her come find her father.”

Stiles nods, rubbing Darcie’s back. “And how did you end up with her? We’re not going to have to deal with any Amber Alerts or anything, right?”

James shakes his head. “No, we found her shortly after her birth. She’d been left to the elements.”

Allison speaks up. “Kate couldn’t do the deed herself.” She looks like she can’t decide whether to be happy about that, or horrified that Kate left her own child out to die. Stiles wraps his other arm around Darcie and squeezes her briefly.

“That’s what we suspected. I doubt she even knew Darcie lived, that we found her. Luckily, we were able to whip up some official paperwork for her, a birth certificate and everything necessary to officially adopt her. I’m not sure what we’re going to do now that Derek doesn’t seem to want her.”

“Well, we’re not going to let her grow up without him.” Stiles frowns. “I think we can figure out something. Scott, can you call your mom? I think we’ll need her on this.” Stiles takes one hand off Darcie to dig through his pockets, only to have Lydia hand his phone to him. “Thanks.” With a few quick movements he’s calling his dad.

 _”Stiles? What’s wrong?”_ Sheriff Stilinski asked when he answered the phone.

“Nothing’s wrong, Dad, we’re fine, we’ve just got... a bit of a situation up here. Nothing dangerous, or, y’know, imminent danger, but we kinda need some ah, well, I think it’ll make more sense if you just come out here.”

_”Derek’s okay with whatever it is?”_

“He’s part of the reason we need your help.” 

There’s a heavy sigh from the other end of the line. _”I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”_

“Noooooo?”

_”All right. I’ll be there as soon as I can get away for a bit.”_

“Thanks, Dad.”

_”Don’t thank me just yet.”_

Stiles hangs up at the same time that Scott wanders back over. “My mom’s on her way.”

Stiles nods. “Good. Y’know, I think this is the weirdest thing that has ever happened in my life so far.”

“Interesting. Considering our lives now include werewolves, kanimas, magic, and hunters.” Allison rolls her eyes as she speaks. “And a kid is the weirdest.”

“So my life-view is twisted. I blame Scott.”

“Hey!”

“You are the werewolf in this friendship.”

“You’re the one who wanted to go looking for...” Scott stops, glancing down at Darcie, who has pulled out of Stiles’ neck to watch the proceedings. “Trouble in the middle of the night.”

Stiles scoffs. “You went along with it.”

“I wasn’t going to let you go tramping through the woods on your own.”

The rest of the pack relaxes further as Stiles and Scott fall into the old, familiar argument, and they’re all lounging on the porch when Melissa McCall pulls up, the Sheriff’s cruiser right behind her. The two approach the porch together.

“Stiles?”

“Hi, Dad. Hi, Ms. McCall.”

“Stiles. Are you going to introduce us to the little lady?”

“Dad, Ms. McCall, this is Darcie. She’s Derek’s um... well, Derek’s. But he’s... stubborn.”

“Stiles, what aren’t you saying?”

“She needs her dad. And Derek isn’t...” Stiles sighs heavily, squeezing Darcie. “I’m not gonna let her grow up without him. She needs her dad. She _tracked him_ here.”

John rubs one hand over his face. “Stiles, you’re eighteen. You can’t adopt her, even if you want to.”

“That’s where you come in. She needs pack just as much as she needs her dad. Lydia and Allison are leaving at the end of the summer, and even with Allison being related, I don’t think leaving a little werewolf girl in the Argent household is a great idea. No offence, Allison.”

“None taken.”

“And the rest of these kids don’t have the capability of taking care of a little girl. She’s already comfortable with me.” Stiles looks down at Darcie and back up at his dad.

“You smell like Daddy.” John blinks down at Darcie, who is looking up at Stiles. “I told you that.”

“I know, Darcie.” Stiles reaches up to run one hand over the girl’s blonde hair. “And I’m gonna make sure you get to stay here, even if your Daddy is being an idiot right now.”

Darcie giggles and Stiles looks up to see a resigned expression on his Dad’s face. “Stiles...”

“Most of the pack is staying here, and they can help out, and there’s a daycare at the school, so she can go there when she gets out of school, and we’ll come out here for the full moon so you don’t have to worry about the yard or anything.”

“And you’ve figured all this out already.” John rubs his face again. “All right. I’ll officially adopt her, but she’s your responsibility now.”

“I’m just wondering why you wanted Scott to call me out.” Melissa looks both amused and curious as she speaks.

“I’m going to assume that Darcie’s birth certificate doesn’t list a father.” Stiles turns to get a nod of confirmation from James. “We need to get Derek listed as the official father in case he decides he’s going to stop being stupid about all of this.”

“You want me to get the paperwork all worked out?”

“Please?"

Melissa sighs and agrees, and Stiles grins at her, grateful for her willingness to help the pack.

~~~~~~~~~~  
It takes almost a full month before Darcie is officially a Stilinski, during which time James remains in town. The first full moon is actually spent in the backyard, Darcie a ball of uncoordinated limbs and soft, fluffy fur, bounding around and pouncing on bugs.

Stiles sits in the middle of the yard and every so often Darcie bounds over and flops into his lap, legs flailing until he wraps his arms around her and pulls her up to plant a kiss on her head.

At some point in the night a series of howls come from the direction of the house, and Darcie bounds into Stiles’ lap and howls back, small and obviously happy. She seems to tire shortly after that, and Stiles carries her upstairs to the room they cleaned out for her.

“Remember, I’m just down the hall if you need anything. Sorry we couldn’t get out to join the pack tonight.” Darcie lifts up enough to lick Stiles’ chin. “I love you too, pup. Now go to sleep.”

Stiles turns and leaves the room, turning back before he flips the lights out to see Darcie curled up in the middle of her bed. She whuffs softly and Stiles grins in response. “Goodnight, Darcie.”

The next morning Darcie half stumbles down the stairs and grins at Stiles. “Morning, Pup.”

“Food?”

Stiles chuckles, because the pack is always hungry after a night running around in the woods. “Come sit down, I’ll whip up some sausage and scrambled eggs, yeah?”

“Okay.” Darcie smiles, but instead of sitting at the table she follows Stiles into the kitchen, watching as Stiles pulls a package of brown-and-serve sausage out of the fridge and grabs a frying pan.

“You like watching people cook?” Stiles sets the frying pan on the stove and turns on the heat before turning to the sausage, glancing at Darcie in time to see her nod. “Hmmm, you’re a little short to see the counter, there should be a step-stool in the pantry over there. He gestures at the pantry and Darcie bounces over to grab it and drag it to the counter. “I used to watch my mom cook. I’m not as good as she was, but it kinda reminds me of her whenever I cook.”

“Do I have a mom?”

Stiles tenses up a little at that. “How much do you know about your mom?”

Darcie folds her arms on the edge of the counter and rests her chin on them. “I know she was a hunter. And she left me. And she’s Allison’s aunt, which makes Allison my cousin.”

Stiles reaches over and runs one hand over Darcie’s head. “Your mom is gone too, and I think, if you want the full story, you’ll have to ask your dad. He might not answer you, but that’s his story to tell you. And I’d wait until you’re a bit older, too.”

“Hey! I’m nine! That’s old enough!”

Stiles pulls a plate down, grabs a paper towel to put on the plate, and scoops the sausages onto it. “Not for this story, pup.” He steps over to the fridge to grab the carton of eggs, pulling out four and cracking them easily into a bowl and giving them a quick whisk with a fork before pouring the eggs into the still-hot pan.

“Does it have something to do with why Daddy smells weird around me?”

“Weird how?” Stiles glances sideways at Darcie.

“Like he’s all jumbled up. I dunno. He smells weird.” She looks up at him again, and he smiles down at her a little sadly.

“I think so. I wish I could smell all the things you smell, then I’d know what you’re talking about.” He turns off the stove and pulls down two more plates, stacking the plate with the sausages underneath and carrying the plates and the pan of eggs to the table. “Grab some forks out of the drawer there.” Stiles points at the right drawer, and Darcie hops down to grab the requested forks and bring them to the table while Stiles divvies up the eggs and steps back into the kitchen to drop the empty pan in the sink.

“You could ask Daddy to bite you.” Darcie stabs a sausage and takes a bite out of it, blinking up at Stiles.

“Maybe someday. Right now, I’m perfectly happy being plain old human Stiles.”

Darcie giggles. “Okay.”

“All right, now eat, before your eggs get cold.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed to show Derek's mindset, so this short little thing of a chapter happened. Chapter 3 will be much longer. Thanks to Shanachie for running through and beta-ing it for me!

Derek wakes up exhausted after the full moon. The effort it took to not go running towards the Stilinski house when he heard the faint, young response to the pack howling was more than he expected. He spent the rest of the night running himself ragged to try and resist the urge to go and claim what is rightfully his. Even with quick healing he aches all over.

He rolls to his feet, finding some clothes to wear and pulling them on, composing himself into the alpha of his pack as he does so. With a deep breath to collect himself, he strides out into the common areas of the house.

His wolf grumbles and whines, the lack of Stiles sprawling across his couch is jarring now, and none of the rest of the pack has claimed Stiles’s so-coveted full-moon-night sleeping spot. Even Jackson has avoided the couch.

Scott's eyes flick between the empty couch and Derek; a blatant accusation about the lack of Stiles. Derek scowls and heads into the kitchen to see about scavenging something to eat.

He can't deal with the pup now, no matter how disappointed Stiles smells when Derek ignores her every time they show up together. She may have his eyes and skin tone but her hair and face are all Kate. Looking at the little girl is painful, no matter how happy his wolf is to see her; especially with Stiles. He can't look at her without seeing Kate, deceptively sweet-faced and promising him so much.

Allison is hard enough to deal with, but different enough from her aunt to be bearable.

And yet Derek has found himself making his way to the Stilinski house to watch Stiles and the pup interact or sit on the roof like some sort of ridiculous guard dog, listening to their voices. Despite everything Derek finds he wants to have this; a family, a pup, something he thought was forever out of reach.

Derek huffs and heads out, ignoring the growling of his stomach as he slides into the Camaro and heads towards town. He stops a few blocks away, close enough that he can hear Stiles' rambling about something, the pup letting out the occasional giggled comment. He sits there, thinking about the kids who had been part of his pack all those years ago.

After a few moments he starts the Camaro and drives away. He's just not ready to face this. He's not sure he ever will be ready.

**Author's Note:**

> Just for reference:  
> Stiles is 18, Derek is 26, and Darcie is 9 when this story starts. The fire was when Derek was 16. Also, I'm going with a 'werewolves can all shift into actual wolves' thing because I feel like it. Also, for the cuteness of a tiny fluffy wolf pup.


End file.
